Testing the Renewed Value Proposition and Customer Segments

As mentioned in our previous post, after the initial brainstorming session and initial interviews we understood that healthy food delivery might not necessarily offer the solution to the problem we thought there is. Here's a short summary on what we thought and what we learned:

We conducted a local online survey and got 161 responses so far. This information helped us to understand a bit more the current situation and we have used it to just update the Business Model Canvas (to get ideas for our hypothesis). As we learned from our lectures we cannot really rely solely on surveys or focus groups because:

1) Surveys assume …. 

• You know the right questions to ask
• You know the right answers
• Customer interviews are about exploring what you don’t know you don’t know
• You can’t see the customer during a survey

2) Focus groups devolve into a “group think”

Therefore, further, we conducted 10 more individual face-to-face interviews to actually test our updated VP and understand what is our potential Customer Segment. Below are some highlights on what we have found out this time:

Customer PAINS:

• Lack of healthy food options with nutritional information in restaurants and canteens
• Food quantity and quality (e.g. eating too big portions of unhealthy food)
• Don't like to cook and there's not a lot of availability of healthy takeaways
• Conflicting info on what's healthy food and what's not
• Lack of nutritional information
• Balance between healthy and "weekend" food
• Food - eating out and social activities
• "I struggle when eating out - pretty much I cannot eat healthy when out with my friends"
• Eating out healthy food can be pricey if done on regular basis
• Trying to find more low-carb options
• Finding restaurants that match in proximity, quality and price

 Some data which actually supports the results we got from individual interviews:

On the scale from 1-10, please rate how important healthy lifestyle (e.g. fitness, balanced nutrition etc.) is for you (1-not important, 10-very important).

So here we see that people are mostly concerned about their lifestyle. 

What keeps you from reaching your fitness goals (if there are any)? 

So mostly those are time constraints. "Other" covered such answers as meals after work with family who doesn't follow the same food choices or requirements, snacking at work with snacks for which they do not have enough nutritional information. However the second most popular answer is that people are not able to follow a healthy diet. Therefore we asked them why is this so.

 

What situations make it the hardest to stick to your nutrition plan/food requirements?

 

Mostly it is the area which requires people to break their routines (e.g. dining out, socializing out with their friends).

 

How important availability of healthy options are to you when choosing a place to eat or buy groceries?

 

To add, we also had some "AHH-aa!!!" moments which helped us to validate VP and think about new features and customer segments, for example:

• People trying to find dining places "on the go" while out on their mobile and usually checking various apps and reviews (idea for what we will be testing next - channels) 
• Looking not only for "healthy" food but also for "fresh" options (e.g. important how long the food has been preserved etc.) (idea for what info to offer within the app - VP) 
• People who are willing to live healthier lifestyle not necessarily check their food's nutritional value but if they have healthy options information then they use it (VP) 
• Before checking a place to eat out, some people always check their menu on website for food. (Channels/VP)
• Good option for many are places where it is possible customize your own food (VP, we can add such info)
• Travelling "hits" people out of the set track - more often it's harder to find healthy food options while abroad (we decided to add a new customer segment - for new people in local area or tourists)
• Many people does not know all nutrition facts, e.i. what is carbohydrates and what they do for your body (VP, adding in info which easily explains what is what)

According to the insight data (and more which is not published) we have come up with initial

Customer GAIN CREATORS AND KEY FEATURES OF VP:

• App with information about healthy food options/menus (e.g. according to various dietary requirements) as well as nutritional information from local restaurants, bars and mostly healthy food shops
• Information about nutrition (e.g. what is healthy and what is not)
• Categorized choices (E.g according to diet - vegan/vegetarian or nutritional info)
• Ratings and info on price levels of healthy food
• Provide the Local info (addressing the proximity)

These features allow us to come to the Minimum Viable Product which you can check out here.